The thought-light flickered as we left the second [Little Guardian’s Focus] behind, pushing past the moving-wall and into the many-nest outside.

Lesser Core Skill: [Little Guardian’s Focus VII] Increased.

[Little Guardian’s Focus VIII] Acquired.

I hissed with satisfaction at the sight, letting my tongue flick out to catch the scent-taste of the air. It was stale and dusty, with tiny remnants of shattered stone scattered by my Coreless’ strides finding their way to me. They walked with a great purpose, their determination renewed by the sight of the Great Core’s power. Looking down, I could see the way that one of the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s hands grasped tightly around her [Little Guardian’s Totem], white-knuckled and almost shaking with the strength of her grip.

She hadn’t yet put it back underneath her skin of ore-flesh, as if wanting to bask in its wonder. I approved, though I hoped that she would put it away later. I sometimes felt lost when The Unrepentant One spoke, and I didn’t want the-female-who-was-not-Needle to become just as confusing.

We swept across the dust-covered ground quickly, my Coreless sticking to the edges of the Focus’ nest, their heads shaded by the carved eaves above us. Green vines dangled from the fake-trees that held up the slight ceiling above us, growing in thick tendrils from cracks in the stone surface.

Unlike before, my Coreless didn’t hesitate.

With the safety provided by the Great Core’s protection, they hacked and slashed their way across the growing plant-flesh. The hidden bad-things of the Lesser Core twitched and trembled, lashing out desperately, trying to bind my Coreless. Hidden barbs and fangs scored the exposed places of my Coreless’ skin-flesh with lines of crimson.

They disappeared quickly, injuries wiped away by the Great Core as each [Little Guardian’s Totem] pressed against skin-flesh in turn.

I hissed again, wondering if I should request offerings of plant-flesh. Somewhere, deep within the great piles of shredded green, were bad-things that I could devour.

In the end, there was too much. Without a way to easily tell apart the vines that had become bad-things and those that were just normal plant-flesh, it would have been too much trouble. I let it be.

My Coreless gathered the shredded plant-flesh, collecting it into one great pile - as a trophy or for some other reason, I wasn’t sure. Not long afterwards, they spread out and gathered from the great many growths of glow-caps that dotted the surfaces of the many-nest, ripping them free.

One by one, the stolen glow-caps began to fill the Second Focus’ nest, banishing the darkness entirely.

Beside me, the-female-who-was-not-Needle let out a heavy breath.

“Feels more like home now that we’ve gotten the place tidied up a little bit, doesn’t it?” she said. I found [satisfaction] when I sunk my fangs into our connection.

“It’s certainly much less creepy, that’s for sure. The lack of potted plants helps with that, too. I’ll never look at a pot the same again,” the newest of the Coreless shuddered, his shoulders shaking heavily. The motion was somewhat feigned, fake. Another of the Coreless’ strange combinations of contrasting body language and emotion. It was interesting to see so frequently. “There aren’t any around here anymore, are there?”

He frantically glanced around the nest, but his [Little Guardian’s Totem] let me know that he was fairly [calm] and [amused]. Another motion that meant something different than it normally would. It really was strange. The-female-who-was-not-Needle let out a small laugh, so I assumed that the contradictory gestures worked as intended.

“No, you don’t have to worry about any spare pots hiding around. I even checked the supply closet,” she answered, just as [amused] as he was. Ever since I had finished imbuing the second [Little Guardian’s Focus], the-female-who-was-not-Needle had seemed much happier. Hopeful.

She had come a long way from the blasphemous Coreless she had once been.

Will coughed, seeming to hold back some laughter of his own. It may have fooled the other Coreless, but I caught the [amusement] reflected in our link. He must have been happy to see the others in such great spirits. Will was like that I had noticed. Quiet, but worried about the mental states of his fellow disciples.

It was good. They couldn’t defeat the Lesser Core if they were in shambles.

“We do still need to talk about the monster in the room,” he said.

All of the Coreless turned to look at me except for Will, who ran a hand across his face and radiated [exasperation].

“It’s...just an expression. Fine. That one was my fault,” he said. “We need to talk about our neighbor next door. Whatever it is that creates the spore mist, one of them is in there - and from the looks of things it might be one of the smallest we’ve seen. Between that and how close we are to the Little Guardian Statue, this will be our best chance to deal with one safely. We’ll be able to see how effectively the Little Guardian Statue’s healing can deal with the effect of the spore-mist itself.”

His expression shifted along with his emotions, flattening and pushing towards something between [worry] and [determination]. “It’ll be dangerous, and we need to treat it that way. We still don’t know for sure whether the Little Guardian Statue’s healing can bring back someone with a more advanc-” he paused, raising his hand as not-Needle made a small sound within her throat. “I’m not saying it won’t work, Valera. We still need to be careful, though.”

She nodded slowly, and didn’t say anything more. Will continued with his noises and jabbers.

“The way I see it, we’ve been lucky so far. We might not always be - and beyond that, most of the people affected by the spore-mist are still within the heaviest sections of mist itself. Even if they can be brought back, we still need to be able to physically bring them back. They’re unlikely to come out of the mists every time. We’ll have to get some of them out ourselves at some point. It’s better to find out what our limits are now, when we have a defensible position,” he gestured at the nest around us, “to fall back to and recover.”

The other Coreless made various noises in response, suddenly seeming nervous - not-Needle most of all.

“Since it’s my plan, I’ll go first,” Will said when they finally quieted down. “It’s only fair.”

They got louder after that.

The green mist spilled from the cracks in the nest in wispy tendrils, thin little things that twisted and curled about before the tiny spores that formed them died and fell to the ground. We hadn’t come so close before, and I found the temptation overwhelming.

As my Coreless gathered in front of the nest’s damaged moving-wall - not that it mattered, all moving-walls had already been proven less than useless in my experience - I slipped down from my perch on the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s shoulder and touched down on the stone below us.

Thin clumps of dead spore-flesh spread across its surface, their greenish-gray speckling the ground. My tongue flicked from my mouth. It touched down.

I pulled a spore into my mouth, swallowing it down.

I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Nothing happened.

In some ways, it was good. As far as I could tell, the dead spores were no longer dangerous in the way that the green mist formed by the living spores seemed to be. With my size, I would have noticed the effects quickly if they had been. In other ways, it was bad. I hadn’t received any notice from the thought-light from devouring them.

I wasn’t surprised, but I was disappointed. It would have been nice to gain a Blooded Trait so easily - especially one that I was sure would be extremely powerful. I wanted it. Badly.

Unfortunately, if the spores themselves didn’t provoke any response from the thought-light, I’d have to go after whatever bad-thing of the Lesser Core was creating them. Which meant that things would become much more difficult if I wanted the Blooded Trait that I was hoping for.

I hissed in a mix of frustration and anticipation. My Coreless kicked down the moving-wall, shattering it brutally.

Those things really were useless.